Hope ELCA Lutheran Church in West Des Moines Has Abandoned Its Denomination, Refusing To Host Gay Weddings.

Hope Lutheran Church in West Des Moines averages 8,700 people worshiping per week.

Protestia

The world’s largest Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) church has officially left the denomination. On July 13, The Synod Council of the Southeastern Iowa Synod voted to remove the Lutheran Church of Hope, West Des Moines, from its membership rolls.

On paper, the Synod is dropping them over a disagreement with their pastoral staff. The multisite mega-church, under the leadership of Rev. Mike Housholder, has seven pastors on staff “who are not on the roster of the ELCA or any of its full communion partners, which conflicts with the ELCA constitution.” Yet in a letter sent to the church family, LCOH has a different take, insisting these pastors are badly needed and are more than qualified, refusing the purge them for the sake of remaining.

The candidacy and call process for pastors, a point of tension between Hope and the ELCA for years, has reached a tipping point. The ELCA has a pastor shortage. As a result, on occasion and out of necessity, Hope’s search for new pastors to serve our rapidly growing congregation has included some who were ordained in non-ELCA denominations. All of these pastors earned a Master of Divinity or higher degree, fulfilled other traditional requirements for Lutheran ordination, and expressed interest in becoming ELCA pastors. However, due to resistance from ELCA synod candidacy committees and the high cost of up to two extra years of required (and often redundant) post-M.Div. classes, they opted out.

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GJ - This congregation is Church Growthy, and ELCA put up with them for many years. When Liz Eaton was a young Ohio bishop, she ridiculed the idea that ELCA would punish those congregations who did not conform to the gay agenda. However, ELCA did that 100%, step by step, with Liz Eaton as Presiding Bishop of the fast-shrinking national synod, 5.3 million members in 1987, probably down by 50% in 2024. Scholars are divided about the records kept.

To keep up the pastoral roster, ELCA began a series of recruiting efforts, graphics below - not fakes.

"Do you feel called to be a leader in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America? We have Discernment Advocates ready to guide you to what might be next. Join an online discernment group today!"

St. John Lutheran Church in Des Moines is an ELCA church noted for being one of the largest in LCA/ELCA.

My vicarage supervisor in Kitchener Ontario, Henry Opperman, had been the senior pastor at St. John, Des Moines. I am guessing they are no longer quite so large. However, these facts are not easily obtained. St. John, Des Moines, is below.